10 Things You Need to Know About Lupita Nyong'o

Can you believe she wrote, directed and produced her own film?

By
Digital Spy

Jan 22, 2014

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After little previous US acting work, Lupita Nyong'o has shot to fame for her harrowing performance in the award-winning 12 Years A Slave. The actress has picked up an Oscar nomination and several other awards for her vivid portrayal of Patsey, a slave who befriends Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) on a cotton plantation in New Orleans.

She featured in Vogue's Rising Style Stars of 2014 and designers are falling over themselves to dress her for her stunning red carpet appearances - even Emma Thompson can't seem to stay away.

So here are ten things you may not have know about 12 Years A Slave's breakthrough star.

1. Lupita Amondi Nyong'o was born in Mexico in 1983. Her parents soon moved back to their native Kenya, but sent Nyong'o to Mexico when she was 16 to learn Spanish. Her father Peter Anyang' Nyong'o is currently the Senator for Kisumu County in Kenya.

2. Not just an actor, the multi-talented Lupita wrote, directed and produced a film about the albino population in Kenya, In My Genes. She made the film as her final thesis while studying film and theatre studies at Hampshire College, Massachusetts.

3. Lupita went on to study acting at the prestigious Yale School of Drama, the alumni of which include Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver and Angela Bassett. Fairly intimidating. But she clearly kept her cool, as a few weeks before she had even graduated she was offered the role of Patsey in 12 Years A Slave.

4. Gamers rejoice! Nyong'o has not just confessed to playing video games, but really good video games. She told Jimmy Kimmel that she barely counts her first trip to the US in 1999 because she spent the whole time playing Final Fantasy VIII.

5. Unthinkable though it may be, Lupita didn't always have her trademark buzzcut. At the age of 19 she had shoulder length hair, and says she dyed it regularly - blue, green, and apparently maroon! Fed up of the salon time and chemicals, she made a spur of the moment decision and shaved it all off. Speaking about the cut, she said: "It felt so liberating. I discovered the shape of my head wasn't so bad! Ever since then, I just don't have the patience to grow it again."

6. When she had time off from shooting 12 Years A Slave, Nyong'o apparently went out at weekends with her co-stars. To let off some steam they went paintballing, go-karting, and apparently had a cheeky night out or two as she says that Michael Fassbender "can really dance". Amazing.

7. The Oscar and BAFTA nominee often uses the word "othecklified" during interviews, which is as made up as the way we've spelled it. Lupita says her dad coined the term, and that it describes a sense of wonder that surpasses human understanding and description.

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8. She may wear keep fashion columns in business with her memorable red carpet appearances, but it's all the work of her stylist: Nyong'o hates to shop. Speaking to Arise Entertainment 360, she said she even finds it "overwhelming" to even walk into a store.

9. Her skin may be flawless now, but Nyong'o suffered from a skin disorder when she was growing up. Concerned, her mother went as far as to travel to Madagascar to get some medicinal herbs. Apparently they didn't smell so good but clearly they seem to have done the trick. When's the next flight to Madagascar?

10. As a child, Lupita kept a dead snake as a pet. And no, you didn't read that wrong. A deadly grey mamba was found, alive, in her house and killed - because no-one wants a snake in their house, right? Wrong. Nyong'o found the deceased snake and took a liking to it, so she took it to her science class and put it in a preservative. Apparently she would then use it to terrify her friends. You may be feeling rather othecklified.